Imperfect but effective crypsis and flower-visiting strategy in a crab spider

IF 1.9 2区 生物学 Q3 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The camouflage of crab spiders on flowers have been extensively studied, primarily focusing on species with uniform coloration. In reality, more than 50 flower-visiting spider species from seven families do not possess uniform coloration. However, there is a lack of exploration regarding them, leaving their cryptic nature uncertain. Additionally, little is known about the flower-visiting strategies employed by spiders at different developmental stages. To address these issues, we investigated Ebrechtella tricuspidata, a crab spider species exhibiting distinct abdomen and carapace colors. Notably, during our earlier field survey, we found that the juvenile spiders appeared on chamomile flowers (Matricaria recutita) significantly more frequently compared to the females. Our visual modeling showed that the spider’s carapace on flower petals was detectable, whereas the abdomen matched the flower petals in both chromatic and achromatic contrast, making it unlikely to be detected by avian. Our predation experiment revealed that the probability of being detected and attacked was significantly lower for spiders on flower petals. Moreover, the attacked percentage of juveniles on petals was significantly lower than that of females. Combined with our previous field findings, we predict that spiders in different developmental stages may employ different flower-visiting strategies according to their predation risk. Overall, our study demonstrated that imperfect crypsis of E. tricuspidata on flower prevents avian predation effectively, and the higher presence of juvenile spiders on flowers may be attributed to their lower predation risk.

Significance statement

Crab spiders are renowned sit-and-wait predators and provide an ideal model for studying animal camouflage. It is widely acknowledged that these spiders exploit flowers of matching hues to deceive their prey. However, there is a pressing need for broader investigations encompassing the camouflage of crab spiders with non-uniform body colors to predators and their flower visiting strategies during ontogeny. To investigate these questions, we conducted avian visual modeling and behavioral experiments. Our findings demonstrated that distinct local body part did not significantly impact overall concealment, suggesting that camouflage is prevalent not only among flower-visiting spiders sporting uniform coloration but also among those with different colored abdomen and carapace. Furthermore, juvenile spiders on flower experienced lower predation risk than females, indicating that spiders at different stages face distinct levels of predation risk. Combined with our previous field findings that juvenile spiders were significantly more commonly found on flowers than females, we predict that spiders may employ varied flower-visiting strategies throughout their developmental stages, where the increasing predation risk leads to a decreased presence of spiders on flowers as they mature during ontogeny.

蟹蛛不完美但有效的隐性和访花策略
摘要 人们对蟹蛛在花朵上的伪装进行了广泛的研究,主要集中在具有统一颜色的物种上。实际上,有 7 个科的 50 多种花蜘蛛不具有统一的颜色。然而,由于缺乏对它们的研究,因此无法确定它们的隐蔽性。此外,人们对蜘蛛在不同发育阶段采用的访花策略也知之甚少。为了解决这些问题,我们研究了蟹蛛 Ebrechtella tricuspidata,它的腹部和甲壳颜色各不相同。值得注意的是,在早期的实地调查中,我们发现幼蛛出现在洋甘菊花(Matricaria recutita)上的频率明显高于雌蛛。我们的视觉模型显示,花瓣上的蜘蛛躯体可以被探测到,而腹部在色度和消色差上都与花瓣相匹配,因此不太可能被鸟类探测到。我们的捕食实验表明,花瓣上的蜘蛛被发现和攻击的概率明显较低。此外,花瓣上的幼蛛被攻击的比例也明显低于雌蛛。结合之前的实地研究结果,我们预测处于不同发育阶段的蜘蛛可能会根据其捕食风险采取不同的访花策略。总之,我们的研究表明,三棘蛛在花上的不完全隐翅能有效地防止鸟类的捕食,而幼蛛在花上的出现率较高可能是因为它们的捕食风险较低。 意义陈述 蟹蛛是著名的坐等捕食者,是研究动物伪装的理想模型。人们普遍认为,这些蜘蛛利用色调匹配的花朵来欺骗猎物。然而,我们迫切需要更广泛的研究,包括体色不一致的蟹蛛在捕食者面前的伪装以及它们在个体发育过程中的访花策略。为了研究这些问题,我们进行了鸟类视觉建模和行为实验。我们的研究结果表明,不同的局部身体部位对整体隐蔽性没有显著影响,这表明伪装不仅在体色一致的访花蜘蛛中普遍存在,而且在腹部和躯壳颜色不同的蜘蛛中也普遍存在。此外,幼蛛在花丛中的捕食风险低于雌蛛,这表明不同阶段的蜘蛛面临着不同程度的捕食风险。结合我们之前在野外发现的幼蛛在花朵上的出现率明显高于雌蛛的情况,我们预测蜘蛛可能会在其整个发育阶段采用不同的访花策略,随着蜘蛛在本体发育过程中逐渐成熟,捕食风险的增加导致蜘蛛在花朵上的出现率下降。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.90
自引率
8.70%
发文量
146
审稿时长
3 months
期刊介绍: The journal publishes reviews, original contributions and commentaries dealing with quantitative empirical and theoretical studies in the analysis of animal behavior at the level of the individual, group, population, community, and species.
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